Hello, I am Takao Wada, CEO of Persol Holdings. Thank you very much for joining us today. To begin with, I would like to present the highlights of today's presentation, including the summary of fiscal 2023 financial results, fiscal 2024 financial forecasts, and a brief mention of the midterm management plan. I will also focus on capital efficiency and shareholder returns. First of all, let me give you the summary of the financial results. Revenue was JPY 1,327.1 billion, year-on-year growth of 6.8%. Operating profit was JPY 52 billion, up 21.8%, and adjusted EBITDA was JPY 72.2 billion, down 4% from last year. The results exceeded the revised forecasts announced in February. I am very pleased to report that our financial results have improved, including SG&A expenses and gross profit.
For fiscal 2024, revenue is forecast to increase from JPY 1,417 billion to JPY 1,429 billion, or 6.8%-7.7% increase year-on-year. Operating profit is forecast to be JPY 52 billion-JPY 55 billion, and adjusted EBITDA is to be JPY 73 billion-JPY 76 billion. We hope to achieve our fiscal 2025 target of JPY 100 billion in adjusted EBITDA as soon as possible after fiscal 2026. At the previous board meeting, we passed a resolution to buy back JPY 20 billion of our own shares, in line with our management's firm understanding of the importance of capital efficiency and emphasis on the cost of capital. We set the dividend for fiscal 2023 at JPY 8.6, with a payout ratio of 50.5%.
We plan to increase the annual dividend for fiscal 2024 by more than 4% to JPY 9. As such, we would like to give more returns to our shareholders while continuing with growth investments. I will reiterate that this buyback will be done once we create an environment that will enable us to do so. Now, CFO Tokunaga will explain the summary and the details of the financial results. CFO Tokunaga, please.
I am Tokunaga, CFO in charge of finance. I will now give an overview of the financial results. First of all, as CEO Wada mentioned earlier, there was an upside compared to the announcement in February. Specifically, operating profit was JPY 52 billion, JPY 3 billion higher than the revised forecast. Our important KPI, adjusted EBITDA, was JPY 72.2 billion, up JPY 3.2 billion.
Adjusted EPS, which is the basis for dividends, was JPY 17.03. This is revenue by SBU. With the exception of BPO, which was affected by COVID-19 related factors, all SBUs achieved revenue growth. In particular, the Career SBU, which was the main pillar of growth in the previous year and current fiscal year, achieved revenue increase of approximately 23%. This is adjusted EBITDA by SBU. Again, BPO SBU had impact of decreasing COVID-19 related projects and saw adjusted EBITDA fall from JPY 17.8 billion- JPY 8.9 billion, but other SBUs saw an increase. In particular, the Staffing SBU, which is the pillar of our business, increased by JPY 4 billion- JPY 30.6 billion, and the Career SBU, which is the pillar of our growth, increased by about JPY 5 billion- JPY 25 billion. Next is operating profit by SBU.
The trend is similar to that of adjusted EBITDA, so I will omit the explanation. This is the analysis of change in adjusted EBITDA in fiscal 2023 compared to fiscal 2022. First, gross profit increased by JPY 19.3 billion. On the other hand, personnel expenses increased by JPY 17.6 billion due to the strong investment in human resources under the current midterm management plan. This shows the changes in IFRS-based operating profit from Adjusted EBITDA. Although adjusted EBITDA was JPY 72.2 billion, depreciation and amortization cost was JPY 12.5 billion, accrued paid leave were JPY 3.7 billion, share-based payment expenses were JPY 2.2 billion and impairment loss of JPY 2.5 billion were posted mainly in APAC, resulting in an IFRS-based operating profit of JPY 52 billion.
We have revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and operating profit by SBU on the following pages. Please refer to them by yourself when you have time. I will continue with a brief explanation of the balance sheet. Current assets increased by JPY 11.2 billion. Non-current assets, or in other words, fixed assets, increased by JPY 18.7 billion. In terms of liabilities, we repaid about JPY 17 billion for bonds and borrowings, both current and non-current. On the other hand, total equity increased by JPY 24.7 billion. This shows the cash flow. The cash flow for the year ended March 31, 2024, was higher than the previous year because the last day of March was a holiday. Specifically, cash flows from operating activities were JPY 77.7 billion.
Cash flows from investing activities were -JPY 19 billion, resulting in free cash flows of JPY 58.7 billion. However, please note that the JPY 29.6 billion in depreciation and amortization includes JPY 17 billion equivalent to rent, which is based on IFRS. As a result, cash and cash equivalents totaled JPY 108.3 billion at the end of March. I will now give a brief overview of the financial results by SBU and the current operating conditions. First is the Staffing SBU, which is our core SBU. It showed a solid performance with a 5.7% increase in revenue and a 14.6% increase in adjusted EBITDA. As for the most recent Q4, from January to March, the number of working days was 58, so the growth rate was a little less than other quarters.
However, the number of workers increased by close to 3% to 125,000, and the unit billing rate increased by about 3%. We have two business topics for Staffing SBU, but due to time constraints, I will not explain them today. The second SBU is BPO SBU. As I explained at the beginning, because of the absence of COVID-19 related projects, both revenue and profit declined. However, organic revenue, excluding COVID-19-related projects, increased by 12% for the year, the same as in the previous three quarters, and the situation is favorable. We also have two BPO topics, but due to time constraints, I will not cover them today. The third is the Technology SBU. We achieved 12.5% increase in revenue and 9.3% increase in adjusted EBITDA for the year. Allow me to explain the three subsegments.
The first is the IT subsegment. Number of engineers increased by 14% year-on-year. The operating rate improved from the third quarter to approximately 90%, but we recognize that there is still room for improvement. The number of engineers in the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, which is the second subsegment, increased by about 8%. The operating rate was 94%, which I understand is generally a good figure. The third segment, Temporary Staffing, decreased by approximately 1.5% year-on-year. Although the number of dispatched engineers itself decreased, the hourly billing rate was 3,936 JPY, an increase of approximately 7% from the previous year. As described at the bottom right, we are enhancing recruiting of engineers.
In fiscal 2023, we hired more than 1,100 engineers, including mid-career engineers, and 481 were new graduates. In April, we hired 630 new employees, 30% increase over the previous year. Let me introduce a topic about Technology SBU. Our mission and vision are to provide a wide range of jobs to our permanent and registered staffs, and in addition to that, we want to provide various career opportunities to freelancers. In order to provide them with a variety of career opportunities, we have started a subcontracting service in April. Specifically, our clients sign a quasi-mandate contract with us, and we in turn sign a quasi-mandate contract with the freelancers to ensure the quality of the work. Next, we have Career SBU. As explained at the beginning, revenue increased approximately 23% in a year.
Adjusted EBITDA increased by 24%. In the fourth quarter, from January to March, the market changed slightly, and revenue increased by about 15% year-on-year. On the other hand, by controlling SG&A expenses, we were able to increase profits in the fourth quarter. The headcount of career advisors increased by 23% year-on-year. On the other hand, productivity declined by approximately 10%, and this is a challenge to be addressed in the current fiscal year. We have two topics for the SBU, and I will explain about the topic on the right. We are pleased to announce that doda X, targeting the high class, and doda Direct will be linked starting this April to better serve our clients. The last SBU is Asia Pacific SBU.
We announced a midterm management plan for this SBU in advance in 2022, and we are currently making steady progress. Specifically, we achieved 7% increase in revenue and approximately 30% increase in adjusted EBITDA. As for the situation in each country and geography, China and Vietnam have not yet recovered to their pre-COVID levels, but other countries and geographies are generally recovering well. The second sub-segment, facility management services, maintenance services for airports, water systems, schools, et cetera, is also doing well here. We have revenue and operating profit for PersolKelly and Programmed in Asia Pacific, respectively. As I explained at the beginning, we posted impairment loss of more than JPY 2 billion on Workmate, a HR tech service in Asia, and the figures reflect this loss. This is others and adjustment. There were no major changes compared to up to the third quarter.
However, there is an increase in inter-segment trades from fiscal 2023. Also, as corporates enhance their IT consulting, adjusted EBITDA fell to -JPY 7.3 billion. We have three business topics of Persol Research and Consulting, but due to time constraints, I will not explain them today. I have given the financial results summary and the current status by SBU.
Now, I would like to explain the full year earnings forecast. First, I would like to share our view of the market with you. First of all, we do not perceive that the market environment for temporary staffing, technology development outsourcing, and BPO, which are the areas covered by our staffing SBU, BPO SBU, and technology SBU, changed significantly since the time when we first formulated our midterm management plan.
We expect the business itself to remain very strong and that we can expect stable growth in this area as well. On the other hand, in the placement business, we continue to see strong market demand. However, we recognize that the market is very sensitive to various changes in the environment, such as selective hiring and a sense of lull in hiring. In particular, we expect that the market will be very susceptible to geopolitical issues and economic fluctuations overseas in the future. Under such circumstances, we are aware that it will be very difficult to predict the speed at which companies will increase or slow down their hiring. As such, we will manage business to be able to fulfill various needs.
Against such a backdrop, we are presenting our earnings forecasts, including revenue and adjusted EBITDA for Career SBU, with a range so that we can ensure more flexible business development over a relatively long period. The reason why we are taking this approach is because our vision is to become a technology-driven human resource service company, as stated in our midterm management plan. We also uphold a vision of Work and Smile. In order to realize this Work and Smile vision, we need to provide more work opportunities, a variety of work styles and learning opportunities, and need to do so in a stable manner and with a high level of satisfaction for the people who utilize these opportunities. Therefore, we are determined to steadily build up our efforts to achieve these goals.
Especially nowadays, human capital management has become very important, and we hope to support the companies that employ human capital as well as the workers, based on the understanding of the thoughts and the efforts of each of the companies. In our approach to business, we are trying to constantly change the ratio of value provided by human resources and the value provided by technology. We would like to shift from a position in which our services are provided almost exclusively through human resources, to one in which the greatest value can be provided by technology and human resources, even if human intervention is minimized through the use of digital technology.
In 2025, we would like to provide better work opportunities for about 500,000 people and continue to grow steadily to be able to offer such opportunities to around one million people by 2030, which will become a big swell for the group and spread the work well-being concept throughout the world. This is the kind of world I want to realize. A case of a digital platform-type business is shown here. As you may already know, Sharefull, as media often report about it, they are often expressed as spare time job or spot job.
In this model, for example, if a restaurant manager says at midnight that he or she is in need of 1 or 2 more workers for tomorrow's shift, he or she can input the information, and by 1, 2, or 3 o'clock midnight, a matching is done, and the next day's shift can be scheduled. Of course, since it is 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning, there is no human intervention, but the system will automatically match the workers. This will be a support to the companies and for the worker. Tomorrow's schedule can be fixed, as if needed, the worker can receive the wage in the same day. This is the Sharefull model. We believe that this service will grow substantially and that it will meet the needs of many people who want to work in a variety of different ways.
Six million people have already downloaded Sharefull app, and we believe that the app will be used much more going forward. We also believe that by utilizing Sharefull, we will be able to support companies by making a management of shift much easier, reducing the workload of store managers and those in charge of staffing, and increase the productivity of the workforce. We are hoping that we will be able to achieve increase in both revenue and profit while continuing to invest in growth. Our full year forecast is affected by our forecast of career business, which is shown with a range. We also need to show the forecast with range for the overall business. For the full year, we are disclosing revenue forecast in the range of JPY 1,417 billion-JPY 1,429 billion.
Operating profit in the range of JPY 52 billion-JPY 55 billion and adjusted EBITDA in the range of JPY 73 billion-JPY 76 billion. As shown in the table, the first half has some visibility, and the range of market fluctuation in the second half is shown in this table based on the first half forecast. I would like to share one more topic, which is about disability employment. We are very big in terms of hiring of people with disabilities. We believe we are the fourth-largest employer of people with disabilities in Japan, and we need to actively promote such employment in the future, as requested by the government, and also to realize our vision. In order to create more work opportunities within our group, we have special subsidiaries to be able to secure maximum and optimal number of employment.
Thus, it was important for each SBU to request work to the special subsidiaries or to create work to request the special subsidiaries. However, going forward, we need to prepare an environment where people with disabilities will be able to work not only at special subsidiaries, but together at SBUs. In order to realize this, each SBU needs to be able to calculate how many employment is needed. Therefore, a new initiative is introduced to drive this effort. As you can see, the figures are different compared to the ones you have seen until now. They are pro forma figures for fiscal 2023, which are based on the new prorated cost of hiring people with disabilities, and the figures are shown here. The top line will not change, but the cost allocation will change.
To be more concrete, costs will increase for Staffing SBU and BPO SBU, but on the other hand, Career SBU's burden will decrease. This is the overview. We have the adjusted EBITDA and EBITDA margin as shown here, and we expect to achieve a level of JPY 73 billion-JPY 76 billion for the full year, with a margin of 5.2%-5.3%. We also expect operating profit to be JPY 52 billion-JPY 55 billion and operating profit margin to be 3.7%-3.8%. CFO Tokunaga will explain again about capital efficiency and shareholder returns. Please....
I will now explain capital efficiency and shareholder returns. First of all, we have always promoted management with an awareness of cost of capital and capital efficiency, and now that the TSE has issued new guidance, I would like to reiterate our approach to cost of capital and capital efficiency. Regarding our analysis and evaluation of the current situation, we determine our cost of capital target through communication and dialogue with our investors based on a certain formula. Specifically, as of March 2024, we understand and recognize that the cost of capital is around 8%. For the period from fiscal 2023 to fiscal 2025, we would like to create a plan based on the 8% of the cost of capital. The board of directors also monitors the cost of capital and capital efficiency and oversees the actions taken by the executives to improve the cost of capital and capital efficiency.
Though I will explain later, our ROIC results are now at over 15%, well above 8% of the cost of capital. Regarding the second point, we have set ROIC and ROE targets based on the understanding that increasing the spread between ROIC and the cost of capital is the key to increasing our corporate value. We also intend to reduce the cost of capital over the medium to long term through more proactive investor relations activities and an appropriate capital structure. In addition, we have already introduced LTI as a measure of achievement of the capital efficiency target in the compensation system for directors. As I will explain later, we will consider shareholder return measures in a timely manner while taking into account the cost of capital and capital efficiency. The third point is dialogue with shareholders and investors.
We would like to have more active dialogues with our shareholders and investors, not only on the cost of capital and capital efficiency targets, but also on how we can improve these figures, and we would like to regularly feedback the content of these dialogues to our board of directors and implement improvement measures and PDCA cycles. This is the result of ROIC and ROE for fiscal 2023. ROIC was 15.1%, exceeding the target of 15%. On the other hand, ROE was 16.6%, falling short of the target of 20%. Based on these results, we would like to consider measures to return profits to shareholders, as Wada explained earlier.
Next, I would like to discuss our financial strategy. Our financial strategy consists of three financial indicators: cash allocation and shareholder returns. Of these, the growth potential of the financial indicators, specifically the target of achieving adjusted EBITDA of JPY 100 billion in fiscal 2025, as explained earlier by Mr. Wada, is something we hope to achieve as soon as possible from fiscal 2026 onwards. As for the cash allocation, we will allocate JPY 50 billion for software investment, which is about the same amount as our three-year depreciation and amortization cost out of the after-tax EBITDA of JPY 200 billion.
For the remaining JPY 150 billion, we used to allocate half, which is JPY 75 billion, to shareholder returns and for growth M&As respectively. However, with a downward revision this time, EBITDA after tax will be reduced from JPY 200 billion. However, we have not changed the shareholder return policy.
As for shareholder returns of JPY 75 billion for the three-year period, we are considering shareholder returns exceeding JPY 75 billion in association with share buyback. There are also no changes to adjusted EPS of approximately 50% as dividends. This is an overview of acquisition of treasury shares. Our policy is to repurchase shares as a means of returning profits to shareholders in a timely manner, taking into consideration our financial situation and stock price. This time, we would like to purchase up to JPY 20 billions of our own shares between June 3 and the end of March next year. We plan to write off 2/3 of the shares purchased.
As for the remaining one-third of the shares, we have a stock compensation plan for employees with a value of approximately JPY 3 billion per year, and we would like to leave one-third or over JPY 6 billion, equivalent to 2 years of the stock compensation plan as it is. Finally, as for dividends, we will pay a total of JPY 8.6 per share for fiscal 2023, consisting of JPY 4.3 per share of interim dividend and JPY 4.3 per share of year-end dividend, as we have already disclosed. For fiscal 2024, in accordance with our dividend policy, we will pay dividends of JPY 9.0 for the full year, JPY 4.5 of interim dividend, and JPY 4.5 of year-end dividend. I have now explained about shareholder returns, cost of capital, and capital. Thank you very much.
Finally, I would like to share something with you. Last year, in 2023, Persol Group was designated as one of Nadeshiko Brands. Of the listed companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, only 27 were selected for the Nadeshiko Brands, and we are very proud that we were selected. In order to create a field where women can play an active role, it is necessary to take care of men as well, and we are committed to providing care for men who are raising children together with women, supporting men's childcare leave, and providing information about men's experiences in childcare and what women go through when they are raising children. I believe that our efforts to create a more inclusive environment while incorporating such systems and mechanisms to allow men to experience what it is like to raise children were highly evaluated overall.
In the future, we will of course continue to increase the number of female managers, but we will not stop there. In doing so, we hope to create an environment where employees with high engagement in our group are able to provide services with high engagement, regardless of gender, nationality, or age. I am very grateful to be chosen as one of Nadeshiko Brands. Finally, we would like to provide you with an opportunity to deepen your understanding of our diverse business activities in the five segments and many other areas, as well as the current status of our business through direct dialogue with the heads of our SBUs. In July or after, we will set up a forum where a presentation by each SBU head will be made so that you can listen and ask questions. Please consider joining this forum.
If you are able to attend, you will be able to get a better sense of the advantages and strength of Persol Group, as well as its future appeal. That is all from me. Thank you.